Dublin City Council has withdrawn a proposal to change the name of Herzog Park, following mounting criticism from across Ireland’s political spectrum and from Israel.
The park, in south Dublin near the city’s only Jewish school, honours Chaim Herzog, the Ireland-born former president of Israel.
A campaign by pro-Palestinian activists had pushed for the park to be renamed after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl reportedly killed in Gaza last year.
Although council documents did not state a reason for the proposed change, the plan drew immediate accusations of antisemitism.
Jewish community leaders said removing his name would erase an important cultural link. The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland described the proposal as “a gross act of antisemitism.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin warned that the renaming “will without any doubt be seen as antisemitic” and was “overtly divisive and wrong.”
Reactions from Israel were equally severe, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar calling Dublin “the capital of antisemitism in the world.”
Writing in Gript, editor John McGuirk argued that the case exposed inconsistencies in the council’s sensitivity toward minority groups, contrasting its stance on Herzog Park with recent efforts to recast Christmas as a generic “winter celebration” to
protect the feelings of those minority of Irish people who find the very notion of Christmas offensive.
McGuirk also criticised Micheál Martin for not taking a decisive stance on the issue, as the head of government’s only aim is for Ireland not to be seen as antisemitic.
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